SPECIAL SECTION: Champions! Bridgewater-Raynham Trojans are simply the best

Thursday

Jun 27, 2013 at 12:01 AMJun 27, 2013 at 9:08 PM

Once the dust settles from the state championship celebration, the 2013 Bridgewater-Raynham baseball team will find its place comfortably at the top of the list as the school’s best squad of all-time.

Coach John Kearney’s team had a run for the ages with six consecutive tournament wins, culminating in its first-ever MIAA Division 1 State Championship, a 4-0 win over Nashoba Regional High School on Saturday, June 15.

Bob Whitney

Once the dust settles from the state championship celebration, the 2013 Bridgewater-Raynham baseball team will find its place comfortably at the top of the list as the school’s best squad of all-time.

Coach John Kearney’s team had a run for the ages with six consecutive tournament wins, culminating in its first-ever MIAA Division 1 State Championship, a 4-0 win over Nashoba Regional High School on Saturday, June 15.

The Trojans finished the regular season with a 15-5 record and claimed sole possession of the Old Colony League baseball crown with a 3-1 mark. Their final record was 21-5.

Kearney said before the season began that he was cautiously optimistic about his team’s chances, given the youth and relative health of his pitching staff.

“I knew we had a solid group of starters with Mike Bruemmel, Jack Connolly, Andrew Noviello and Josh Monson but they were either young or hadn’t pitched a lot of varsity innings,” said Kearney, who has been at the B-R helm for 15 years.

“Cody Medairos had a shoulder tear that required some attention. I was hopeful of his return, and with Cody at full speed our staff had the makings of being special.”

The Trojans got their season rolling with a six game winning streak as they received solid pitching performances by Bruemmel, Connolly, Noviello and Monson.

Medairos was still rehabbing his shoulder back to active duty on the mound and Bruemmel came down with some arm issues of his own.

“We had to shut down Mike (Bruemmel) for a couple of weeks,” said the coach.

The Trojans hit a little speed bump as they lost a pair of back-to-back games to Marshfield (10-3) and a shootout to the eventual Division 2 state champs from Hingham, (14-11).

They would once again lose to Hingham in the regular season finale (6-2) but with a 15-5 record and a No. 4 seed Kearney was optimistic about his team’s chances, particularly with the return to form of both Bruemmel and Medairos.

“Pitching is the number one reason we were able to win as many games as we did,” Kearney noted.

Sophomore Andrew Noviello led the way on the mound with a 5-1 record and an eye-popping 0.61 ERA.

Noviello was brilliant in the Trojans 12-0 win over Braintree High School in the sectional quarterfinals as he allowed just two hits while striking out a dozen.

Bruemmel, the left-handed fireballer, was right behind Noviello with a 6-1 record. Bruemmel, who will continue to play baseball at Wheaton College finished his final season with an impressive 1.82 ERA.

Bruemmel was superb in the south sectional final win over BC High (4-3) and went the distance in the state final against Nashoba Regional.

The workhorse of the staff was sophomore right-hander Jack Connolly who finished with a 6-2 record. The sophomore pitched a team high 55 innings and had a 2.16 ERA.

Connolly, who had a couple of shaky outings in the tournament against Attleboro and Walpole, acquitted himself quite well in leading the Trojans to a 5-2 win over Billerica in the Eastern Mass. final.

Junior Josh Monson had a 3-0 record but was particularly effective in relief efforts against Attleboro and Walpole.

“Monson really saved us when we dug ourselves an early hole against Walpole,” said Kearney.

Offensively, the Trojans were led by junior catcher Joe Freiday who had a spectacular season with the bat and behind the plate.

Freiday was the Trojans leader hitter with an impressive .414 BA (36 hits in 87 at bats). Freiday also led the squad with 31 RBI and 5 home runs.

“We knew going in that Joe had the tools,” the coach said. “He had a breakout year.”

Freiday has the college recruiters and professional scouts buzzing about his future potential at the next level.

Senior Tyler Carey was the team’s second leading hitter with a .388 BA and 3 home runs.